Walking along London Rd, a glance down Templeton St had me staggering to the nearest pub to recover with a good stiff malt, or two.

At first glance, it looked as if a chunk of Templeton's carpet factory had been demolished, and new building wark was already underway.

After the paramedics patched up the defibrillator burns, they let me wander down for a closer look. The demolition was confined to the modern part of the building, which had been a leisure centre in recent years. According to the signs around the site, the development is of a number of luxury flats (why are they always 'luxury' nowadays?). Doesn't look as if it will take long, the sections in place look like prefab or ready-pour concrete, assembled from the inside outwards.

Hope they look after the exposed end of the 1930s section.

They've added the memorial Templeton Gate along from the old station fascade in Binnie Place, in memory of the 29 women killed in adjacent weaving sheds, 1 Nov 1889, when the factory fascade collapsed due to insecure fixings. The story is carved in the light section of stone across the base of the gate.

And the licencing application for the public house and beer garden is in place too.

I worked for James Templeton for a short while anno 1968 and I remember that the modern building which eventually became Marcos Leisure Centre was at that time the factory's despatch department. The carpets were warehoused and sent out from there. The entrance to the leisure centre was then the loading ramp. The building was put up in 1963 I believe. There was another building [long demolished] on the opposite side of Templeton St. which contained - such was the social stratification in those days - a works canteen, a staff restaurant and a dining room for directors and senior management.
One would like to think that the new 'luxury' flats will complement Leiper's original design as successfully as the 1920's/1930's wings by George Boswell. What's the betting we will be sorely disappointed in that respect?

Viceroy, do you know what the big glass bay window that jutted out above the despatch door served? Now that you've described the function of the 'new' extension building, its destroyed my illusion that it was the director's board room, to give them a nice view as they discussed the business.

The window under the clock at the corner of Templeton St and London Rd is open to the gym area, and you can look in at the excercise machine etc. I would have said members too, but only ever 2 or 3 when I've looked in.

It was a very long time ago and I can't really remember. In fact I had completely forgotten about the large window above the loading bay. My feeling is that the whole building was part of the warehousing/despatch operation at the factory. On the other hand maybe it was part of the design department. This would have been an ideal place for it, with plenty of light. But it certainly wasn't the boardroom. This was in the upper echelons of the main office block on Templeton St. where the directors had their own rooms.

I remember the showcase window. There was a showroom on the first floor, above the entrance in Templeton St., but I think this may have been for trade only, not retail.

By the way, Templeton's had recently bought a computer which was shown to me just after I joined. It had a large office all to itself and was attended by a couple of guys in white coats who were referred to in terms of hushed reverence.

viceroy wrote: Templeton's had recently bought a computer which was shown to me just after I joined. It had a large office all to itself and was attended by a couple of guys in white coats who were referred to in terms of hushed reverence.

How times change, now it's multiple computers attended by a solitary soul known as something that doesn't resemble hushed reverance (and white coats were dispensed with to save on laundry bills).

On the building front, it seems that a pattern is emerging where the heart is ripped from them for development purposes whilst the frontage remains for cosmetic reasons. Masked developments.

Looks like the original development was much more of an act of vandalism than the final project, a news item I just found from 2003:

Proposals by developers to convert the former Templeton carpet factory into flats and offices - which were branded "architectural vandalism" - have been withdrawn. They would have meant constructing a 15-storey modern office block in the car park and adding roof-top penthouses to the 19th century A-listed building, which is structure, clad in multi-coloured tiles, overlooks Glasgow Green and is a major tourist attraction in the city. The architects have now dropped the glass roof-top apartments and reduced the height of the planned tower block.